[Foundation-l] Mission & Vision statement updated

Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton at gmail.com
Thu Apr 26 22:12:02 UTC 2007


> There is actually, at least under U.S. law, a definition of "public
> charity", which is the category the Wikimedia Foundation falls under,
> and such charities must dedicate themselves to "public purposes", which
> have some more detailed definitions but would almost certainly not
> include a "caviar for aristocrats" purpose.  So of course the Foundation
> could not change its purpose from that of a public charity to something
> not a public charity without compromising its current status.  But the
> question is whether *any* change needs to be vetted in advance by the
> IRS to verify that this hasn't happened, which is a separate matter.

That's as may be (I don't believe that's the case under UK law, which
is what I was going by, but US law could well be different), but it
doesn't really make any difference. If I donate money to a charity,
they cannot use that money to do something I haven't given permission
for, however charitable it may be. If I donate to a charity to provide
fun activities for children aged 7-10 and they let 11 year olds in, I
can sue.



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